Alumni Wine by Cornell Alumni Affairs
Welcome to the 2023 collection of Alumni Wine by Cornell Alumni Affairs! This collection – our sixth – is a delicious assemblage of taste-test-winning East and West Coast alumni-made wines that includes two reds by Anthony Van Nice, MBA ’10, of Real Nice Winemakers, a Chardonnay by Chris Stamp ’83 and Liz Stamp ’85 of Lakewood Vineyards, and our first offering of a sparkling wine by Frederick Johnson Jr ’75, MBA ’77, and Jennifer Johnson, MBA ’79, of Johnson Estate Winery. To top it off, this year’s collection is presented in bottles featuring the vibrant artwork of Maria Calandra, MFA ’06, and Erik den Breejen, MFA ’06, painters who met at Cornell, are now married, and are both working artists. To learn more about this year’s winning wineries and artists, check out their stories below and be sure to get the limited-edition wines while they last!
2022 Chardonnay
$20 per bottle
- Alcohol 13.3%
- pH 3.35
- Titratable Acid 6.2 g/L
- Bottling Date August 2023
Chris ’83, Abby ’13, and Ben ’11 Stamp
Lakewood Vineyards
Located in Watkins Glen, with slopes gently leading down to Seneca Lake, Lakewood Vineyards has been family-owned and operated since 1951, when Frank and Lucy Stamp planted their first juice grapes. The second generation, Monty and Beverly Stamp, opened their winery in 1989, uncorking seven varieties of wine from estate-grown grapes, and the third generation – siblings Chris Stamp ’83, Dave Stamp, and Teresa Stamp Knapp ’90 – brought Lakewood to its award-winning present, joined by a fourth generation, Ben Stamp ’11 and Abby Stamp ’13, the children of Chris and Liz Stamp ’85, who manages the vineyards’ sales and marketing.
The Stamps continue to blend traditional vineyard practices and new techniques, optimizing the potential of each variety to deliver beautiful grapes to the table each harvest. “First in my hierarchy of importance is making good sound wine that represents the Finger Lakes region,” says Chris. “We never bring in fruit that isn’t grown locally. I’ve never wanted to be a wine factory. We want all our wines to have a sense of place. All other philosophical elements must be in harmony with this first rule.”
2021 Pinot Noir
$30 per bottle
- Alcohol 13.6%
- pH 3.61
- Titratable Acid 5.8 g/L
- Bottling Date June 2022
2020 Cabernet Sauvignon
$30 per bottle
- Alcohol 13.6%
- pH 3.88
- Titratable Acid 5.3 g/L
- Bottling Date June 2022
Anthony Van Nice, MBA ’10
Real Nice Winemakers
Based in the heart of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Real Nice Winemakers is the rapidly-growing producer of Black Magnolia Pinot Noir, Shallow Seas Rosé, and Into the Woods Cabernet Sauvignon. The brainchild of co-founder Anthony Van Nice, MBA ’10, RNW uses grapes from some of the Valley’s most renowned growers – Domaine Loubejac Vineyard, Eola Hills Vineyard, Westmount Vineyard, and his own Murto Vineyard – to bottle the taste of old-school Oregon wine production and its wide rows, dry farming, and non-grafted vines.
“The idea for Real Nice Winemakers started with a request from our sommelier friends who work at some of the best restaurants in the country,” says Van Nice, who manages the winery with his wife Lindsay Van Nice. “They asked us to create wines representative of Oregon’s Willamette Valley that over-deliver on quality for the price. We spent the last decade working on this and leaned heavily on our experience working in wineries in Burgundy, New Zealand, Australia, Napa – and of course, Oregon.”
2021 Sparkling Traminette
$25 per bottle
- Alcohol 13.0%
- pH 3.41
- Titratable Acid 6.7 g/L
- Bottling Date June 2023
Johnson Estate Winery
The story of Johnson Estate begins with an English orphan named Frederick Johnson ’01, who purchased a family farm in Westfield, New York, in 1908. By 1920, he had built an apple cold storage facility, which currently houses the tasting room, barrels, and offices. After his death in 1960, the estate passed to his son, Frederick Spencer Johnson ’43, who became the first farmer to plant French-hybrid wine grapes in Western New York. A generation later, his three children – Frederick Johnson Jr ’75, MBA ’77; Elizabeth Johnson ’76; and Anthony Johnson ’80 – inherited the farm, planting new European vinifera vineyards and introducing Riesling, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir in addition to fruit, sparkling, and ice wines.
The estate, with 115 acres of vineyards, currently grows 13 varieties of grapes under the direction of Frederick Jr and his wife Jennifer Johnson, MBA ’79, who became owners in 2010, just in time to celebrate the winery’s 50th anniversary. In thinking about what it means to own a family winery and farm, designated as a Century Farm in 2018 by the New York State Agricultural Society, Fred and Jennifer say, “Perhaps the best part is the appreciation that we can – in building and creating new traditions on this Century Farm – continue to be stewards of the family land, its business, and our community in ways that leave each in a little better condition than we found it.”
The Artists
Maria Calandra ’06 and Erik den Breejen ’06 met in 2004 at the outset of their time at Cornell and had an immediate rapport. The two began dating after completing their MFAs and married in 2013. The artists share a studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Though their work initially appears to have striking differences, they share many core aesthetic beliefs and values. Their search for inspiration often finds the pair traveling, part of a never-ending quest for far-flung artistic masterpieces and natural wonders.
Maria Calandra ’06
Maria Calandra (b. 1976, London, England) received an MFA in Painting from Cornell University in 2006 and a BFA in Painting from Ohio University in 1999. She is currently preparing for a solo exhibition with Fredericks and Freiser Gallery in NY and has had solo shows at GNYP Gallery in Berlin, Germany (2023) and Steve Turner Gallery in Los Angeles, CA (2021) as well as a two-person show at G/ART/EN Gallery in Como, Italy (2023). Maria has been included in group shows at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, NY, Andrew Edlin Gallery, NY, Shrine Gallery, NY, 1969 Gallery, NY, and Johansson Projects in Oakland, CA. She has been shown at several prominent Art Fairs including the Armory Show in NY and EXPO Chicago. She has been reviewed and written about in Time Out New York, The Washington Post, The New York Sun, and The New York Times, and featured in Maake Magazine, FUKT Magazine in Berlin, and ArtMaze Magazine. Lastly, Maria is the artist and writer behind the project PENCIL IN THE STUDIO where she visited artists in their studios for the day while drawing their artwork and space. She then wrote about each experience. Maria drew nearly 100 studios over 11 years.
A detail from Maria’s Sun through Redwoods appears on the Lake Erie Sparkling Traminette by Johnson Estate Winery.
A detail from Maria’s Promise is a Pendulum appears on the Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon by Real Nice Winemakers.
Erik den Breejen ’06
Erik den Breejen was born in Berkeley, California, in 1976. He is a graduate of Cornell University, where he received his MFA in 2006, and the California College of the Arts, where he received his BFA in 1999. His paintings have been exhibited at Miles McEnery, Turn, and Freight + Volume in New York and Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, among others, and are collected internationally. Den Breejen’s large-scale public works include commissions for SoFi Stadium and YouTube Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, and Atlantic Records, Public Art for Public Schools, PayPal, and Rag and Bone in New York. Erik is a 2018 MacDowell Fellow, a 2015 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Painting, and a three-time recipient of the DNA Artists Residency in Provincetown, MA. His work has been reviewed or featured in The New York Times, Artnews, Hyperallergic, Artnet, Art Maze, Maake, Whitehot, and more.
Erik’s Turn and Face the Strange appears on the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir by Real Nice Winemakers bottle.
A detail from Erik’s Sunflower II appears on the Finger Lakes Chardonnay by Lakewood Vineyards.
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